Author : Christina Colleen Flaherty-Colling
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 564 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (1 download)
Book Synopsis Examining the Phenomenon of Teaching in a School that Utilizes Standards Based Grading by : Christina Colleen Flaherty-Colling
Download or read book Examining the Phenomenon of Teaching in a School that Utilizes Standards Based Grading written by Christina Colleen Flaherty-Colling and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 564 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study explores the lived experiences of seventeen individuals, ten who teach English and seven who teach math, who operate under a mandated change to Standards Based Grading. Reporting requirements for the Common Core State Standards have prompted districts across the country to adopt Standards Based Grading (SBG), but there is little research about its impact. In-depth interviewing was employed to understand how teachers view this change in relation to their professional practice and their nuanced understandings of the change. Though almost all the participants could identify some benefit from the shift to SBG, they were unanimous in voicing concerns regarding what they experienced in their specific context. The move to SBG was disruptive to the practices of most of the teachers in this study, except for those who were newest to the field. It mandated the unseating of long-held beliefs and practices. Though packaged as a grading initiative, it challenged notions of classroom management, student engagement, instruction, and "best practice." Every teacher in this study records grades on a 0-4 scale. Every teacher in this study uses the terms formative and summative assessment, and those two types of assessments are reported identically in their grade books. This is where the similarities end in the ostensibly standardized grading landscape, with marked variation in instructional and assessment priorities existing among teachers, even those within the same content area. Teachers reported that thinking and talking about grades, grading, fairness, equity, motivation, the purpose of assessment, and the best ways to make Standards Based Grading work shifted paradigms. However, these shifts did not fundamentally change the way most teaching and learning takes place in their classrooms every day. Additionally, teachers also reported that communication with students and families became more challenging because of the move to SBG, which is in direct conflict with one of the stated aims of the implementation. Teachers varied in their perceptions of how to make SBG work better in the Metropolitan Public Schools, including abandoning it altogether, returning to its fundamental principles without any modification and making minor adjustments to better suit the unique needs of the district.
